


Echoes of a Forgotten Hero's Love

by ricketyhopeful



Category: Star Wars, clone wars - Fandom, prequels - Fandom
Genre: (i think), Akathecentimeter, Also known as, Hope you have a wonderful wonderful christmas!!!!, I'm sorrry, Implied Character Death, M/M, also, this is a secret santa for CommonPlaceCaz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 07:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5531375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ricketyhopeful/pseuds/ricketyhopeful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Secret Santa for CommonplaceCaz from Tumblr, hope you have a great hoilday!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akathecentimetre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akathecentimetre/gifts).



> Apologies if you dislike the title.

First things first… happy holidays Commonplacecaz!! I was your secret Santa. Hope you like this! It becomes far more CodyWan in the second chapter, as per your preferences.

…

Come with me my friend.

Let us drift on the quiet oceans of time.

And remember all the lost, lonely heroes of cobweb-ridden legend.

And weep, if we may, for all that never was.

 

 

Obi-Wan loosened his muscles, forcing himself to unclench as fire rained around him. His braid whipped in the wind, the ever-growing length trailing away behind him, beads of past achievements subtly shimmering in both the force and the feeble sunlight.

_Focus on the present padawan._

Right.

The forced cradles him in that moment, paradoxical to the hurricane of violence around him. Then Obi-Wan’s focus sharpens like the sapphire blade in his hand and waves of controlled power flood outwards, snapping everything into stillness. The whole world freezes on his command, the air filling with a fiery will which all can feel and seems to set the world alight.

Then, ever so slowly, frozen life-forms, both humanoid and not, begin to slip away from the tightly held positions. They pick up speed until they are running, leaving their foes behind in the field. As his allies escape towards a transport behind him the young Jedi open’s his eyes. The wind still buffets his cloak, at odds with the world around him, framing the forced stillness of the opponents even more starkly. Obi-Wan begins to smile then.

And as the world unfreezes and blaster shots resume he grins outright, ducking between the closing doors right after his comrades, leaving the taste of sapphire fire in the air long after he is gone.

…

Inside the ship he walks among those he saved, comforting those in need until his master can arrive.

It irks him, how little he can do to help those who lost people when their village was attacked. The soldiers in combat he can give advice for how to heal their various maladies - _I will never hear the end of it from Bant if I admit that her time studying to be a healer with me quizzing her helped._ But for the villagers that saw the destruction on the only place they had ever know he can only offer sympathies and quite comfort. Obi has done this enough times by now to know that explanations as to why – the political situation on the planet due to restricted trade, various conflicting statements and threats in the senate – will do nothing. In fact when he first tried to explain why to people many accused him of being heartless, only caring about the politics.

It was then that he had felt one of the larger parts of temple training in his mentality. Always there had to be a way to press on and deal with the situation, while acknowledging the humanity and wash of pain in the Force. Inaction in the face of crisis was just as foolish as allowing oneself to remain uncentred when you had to meditate.

The idea suddenly occurs to him to place a subtle force suggestion in the air and he curses himself for not thinking of it earlier. Closing his eyes to concentrate the Obi-Wan stops and gently reaches for the Force, feeling the tumult around him streak through the flow of it around him. Centring himself the senior padawan reached inward, to his own base of serenity. It is still small, hardly the solid base that Yoda carries around, more a small river-stone well-smoothed by use. But it would more that suffice for now. Pulling it close to him he feels the Force shift to accompany it, as though around him he has suddenly created a small pool of calm. With careful manipulations the pool this and spreads, until small tendrils of water-like force are running away from him and throughout the ship.

When all is done the young Jedi opens his eyes, takes in the situation around him and moves on.

He does not see the wide eyes of those around him, who had felt the creation of a well of comfort and calm and how it spread. He does not see the respect that grows in the soldiers’ eyes as they realize that what happened out there in the battlefield was no fluke.

And if he knew that, after this whole fiasco was settled and villages established, there came to be legends of a Jedi hero with sapphire fire in his eyes and grace in his cloak who froze the world and then picked up the pieces of shattered lives until they fit together again he would likely have never ceased blushing.

…

Yoda blinked in amazement at the two reports before letting out a small chuckle of amusement.

Jinn’s part was professional as always, but it made no mistake that Obi-Wan Kenobi had been responsible for a large part of mission’s success. There is no downplaying of his own skill either, of course. Jinn has many failings but inaccurate reports is not among them.

Nor is it normally among Kenobi’s.

But the boy seems quite insistent – insistent in the way only a future diplomat can be, full of flowing words and subtlety of course – that what he did was no great feat. Shaking his head in mildly frustrated amusement Yoda made mental note that whenever the senior padawan became a full night to go and send him on a couple solo missions with easy planets to hopefully get some of his confidence up. Though knowing Kenobi he would save the world and then think it his fault that problems erupted in issues beyond his control.

_Wonder how his Padawan will deal with that. Hmmm. Problem for another decade that can be._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Much later in time.

Come friend, and let us glimpse the later years of this tragic tale.

There is, of course, a way this could have been prevented.

A number of ways, if we are to be completely truthful.

But possibility does not equal reality.

And so, before we set off in this new era, let me tell you something of this story that all its members learnt too late:

There is no controlling it.

And so, as it has no intention of it apologizing to you I shall do so.

This is not a happy story. If you are one that wishes for a happy ending mayhap you should stop with the previous part, where our heroes are full of light and potential.

Because if you follow too far all you shall discover are small fragments of lost hope.

I’m sorry but it’s true.

The story cannot help itself.

 

 

 

 

General Obi-Wan is meditating when the realization dawns upon him. _Cody._ Oh.

Oh.

Damn everything to all the Sith hells. He wants to shove this away and down, forget its existence. Because, kriff it, this _cannot happen._

But he doesn’t. This is already against the Code, but to ignore it will undo him he knows. And in the midst of the war having another Jedi, especially one as public as himself, go suddenly insane could tip the political scales of popularity towards the Sith. So he grasps at the Force and what he now understands to be the base of romantic love and barges on. He hasn’t been this unsure of what to do since he was coming back from Melida-Daan. The Force senses it, this crushing uncertainty, but for some reason his feet do not feel like they are being ripped out from underneath him, as he expected betrayal of the code to be.

That does not make him feel less traitorous to what he stands for or less like his heart is shattering into a thousand fragments.

Breathing deeply the horrified general shuts his eyes and drops like a stone into the Force.

.

It is this way that Anakin finds him. It startles the ex-padawan so much that his master does not stir that he reaches into the Force to check and is startled. It is as though there is a well that has opened up where his master is in the Force. So deeply entrenched is Kenobi that even Skywalker’s oblivious behemoth of a force signature does not register in those depths. Concern rising Anakin kneels and shuts his eyes too, following the path down.

As he goes down and down the Force gets darker and darker. Not sithly per-se but … painful. As though Obi-Wan has lost all his self-trust.. But as he goes it seems that the Force more than Obi-wan has had a hand in this. The currents whisper something he cannot understand but that feels like an explanation meant for somebody else. At long last, after more several shifts in mood he finds his friend. He tugs on the other Jedi’s consciousness but the Force gently pushes him away. It is then that he feels another person entre the room.

“Leave Master Kenobi along you should Skywalker. Come back to us in his own time he shall.”

Anakin spins around simultaneously staggering up and trying to drop a clumsy bow to the Grandmaster.

“Master Yoda! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. Obi-Wan said he was going to practice with us – me and Ashoka that is - after mediation. When he didn’t show up for ages we were concerned.”

The small Master nods, before glancing towards Obi-Wan with compassion in his gaze. “Reason there is to be concerned for Kenobi young Skywalker. But helping him, the Force is. Join you soon he should. In the meantime, practice with your padawan you should.”

Anakin nods in response, though he hesitates there for a couple minutes more, hoping the dismissal is going to be revoked. He has no wish to abandon his near-family member if the older man was truly going through something … definitely bad. But Yoda clearly means what he has said so the younger Jedi nods in respect and quickly excuses himself, albeit with a backward glance, brows furrowed.

…

When Obi-Wan emerged it was with a new gravity about him. This was man whose values had been shattered by himself in a manner he could not control and then dragged on a lesson that was entirety forgotten by an ancient presence that was woven throughout the universe.

Mildly daunting.

Yoda chuckles as the wry thought echoes around the newly weathered Master. At the noise Obi-Wan’s eyes flare wide, snapping him from his slow resurfacing directly into present. Yoda gently reaches out, a placing a comforting hand on the man’s shoulder, as though he has returned to the crèche.

“Learnt much you have, hmmmm?”

Kenobi’s eyes are softly wary but he nods. “Very much master. Thankyou.”

It is excruciatingly clear that the diplomat is present right now. A diplomat who will yield to the Grandmaster if specifically demanded, but who otherwise will fend of all attacks as best he possibly can.

Yoda wishes to weep.

This is what war has done. A young padawan unafraid to explore the Force has matured into a great man, and _astonishingly_ good Jedi. It has now taken him on a journey about the true values of his people, a lesson that Yoda himself has only had glimpses of. Of course, he has a much greater understanding of other parts of the Force. But romance was never his interest and thus he has never pried. But here is Kenobi, having gone through the depths of the Force, who has clearly reached a place where he can take his feelings, acknowledge them, and press forward –despite the depth of them!

And the man believes that he will be thrown out on his head if he confesses all this. He has been pulled into such strict confines by the war that only rules he was raised with are permitted, and that his own situation is only permissible as there is no other conceivable way to deal with it.

General Kenobi is known for his prowess in the Force, for his diplomatic skill, for his politeness and humility.

They do not mention that, alongside the rebellious fire in his eyes, the compassion and intelligence, there is are splinters of a broken confidence that stops him from discussing galaxy-changing revelations because he believes that what he feels is a mistake and that the Force is heling him cope with it as best it can.

Yoda stares at the man in quiet frustration and sorrow.

“More than competent you are Obi-Wan. Trust in this, you should.”

...

Ashoka stared in amazement as Master Obi-Wan walked through the door to the practice room.

Anakin had said that the other master would not be joining them, due to some sort of complications. Whatever they were, she hasn’t seen a Jedi’s aura shift like this before. Obi-Wan has always had a different presence than Anakin’s, more subtle and tempered and grounded in a very different way. Anakin is as if he lives and breathes the Force in, commanding it and _existing_ in it. Obi-Wan more exudes it and flows with it’s gentle currents. Then, when he feels like it, setting all those tiny strands that flow through him alight with blue fire, like his saber.

Now it is as though a small part of Yoda has rubbed off on him – there is still all his normal grace and personality, but alongside it now are traces of an ancient presence. She can’t put her finger on what it centres on. The subject has a different base than Yoda’s that’s for sure. It almost seems to ache in the Force, as if there is something so _right_ about what he has done that notice should be taken. That he should be _doing_ something with this new knowledge more than what he is.

But then the older Jedi leaps in to sparring with her master and the moment fades away, leaving only a very skilled pair of Jedi practicing in a halo of light and power.


	3. Chapter 3

As the war wages on Anakin begins to suspect more and more what caused the commotion in that meditation room.

Obi-Wan does nothing about it of course. He acknowledges his feelings and then moves on.

Ashoka mentions it to her master once and Anakin just shakes his head. “You have about as good an understanding as I do on this one Snips.”

…

It’s a year and half later when one of the clones first notices that the General’s eyes soften slightly around them. It’s another six months before he figures out who.

Rex just smiles then, and in a very informal moment walks up to General Kenobi and slaps him on the shoulder. “Good luck with that one General.”

Kenobi looks at him in confusion before understanding dawns and to all on-lookers’ shock he turns a rather deep shade of crimson. “Given the situation no luck would be useful. I don’t need this getting worse.”

Rex simply chuckles and then goes back to planning an attack.

…

And the that day arrives. 

Order 66 is here.

.

.

.


	4. Last Chapter

I shall simply have to hope, my friend, that you listened.

I can say nothing more.

What will  happen will happen.

And the world shall tear quietly asunder.

 

 

 

The clones catch him the day after Mustafar, and the commands implanted in them take over. It is the only time that they have ever seen the General so tortured, the only time that the Force actually brushed their hearts.

Because when the General sees them, as he stands outside a transport such relief fills his eyes that the realization that follows it is heart-breaking. But here is hope still, and the General stands there, as Cody walks up to him as extends his hand.

“Cody, please. Hold fire for a couple seconds and I can disable the chips, at least temporarily. Then you’ll be free.”

He knows the answer, even as he looks into the barrel of a gun and too-tired eyes. “I’m sorry General. But that’s been tried already. No good comes of it.” It is hesitant, the lighting of a saber. Still Kenobi does not move.

Cody explodes, “General Kenobi, _run, Sith damn you. I don’t want to kill you._ ” There’s a battered unusable transport behind the Jedi, but he’s seen Kenobi work miracles before. “At least _run!”_ The clone doesn’t notice how his voice shatters at the last word.

“I can’t. I won’t abandon them like I did their father.” The words are quiet and full of pain.

 _Father?_ He finally understands that the General is a place that he doesn’t understand. Too much has happened since they last parted and there is not time to recap anything. There likely never will be.

Cody realizes he can feel the chip in his arm twitching. He knows then, that the General  is trying to fix this, even now, even as he stands on a desolate world with no escape or chance. Even now the man is trying to protect those who were under his command, who he cared for.

Sith hells, what had he done to deserve this man’s compassion?

“Cody, please. One more minute and I’ll have you free.”

“No, general, you won’t. There is the whole troop here and we know you backwards. You’ll die. Run. Forget whoever you’re trying to protect for once and run.”

At that moment Rex is unable to hold his fire any longer, quivering with the strain of trying to hold it in. The first blast shoots across the space, and instantly every part of the will Cody was exercising is overridden. A blast slams into the General, sending him to his knees.

The Jedi Master _screams._ A wave blasts out, and Cody’s eyes widen as everything becomes frozen. He’d heard stories of Jedi with this power. Master Kenobi has used it small-scale before, never this large. He hadn’t even known this was _possible._  

Yet something tells him it shouldn’t be like this. This power is supposed to be used for justice, or stopping Separatists attacking defenceless villagers. Not like this, not like this, _not like this._ Not with the air feeling as if lava is scorching those being held, as if Kenobi’s pain can’t be held inside one man, not even a Jedi carved from legend. A gentle voice whispers to him of long-lost blue flames of mischief and of innocent compassion oft used to save lives.

That is not now. Whenever that happened it was eons ago, centuries away from this crumpled remnant of an awe-inspiring splendour. That was when the Jedi had been in their prime, when Kenobi had been young and full of hope. This is now and now Kenobi is falling to his knees, screaming as if nothing will make the world right again.

It is as though he was pulled together before by will and traces of diplomatic composure. Now that those he would have die for have fired upon him he can’t hold it anymore, he’s breaking into splinters that will take years to reforge into something even slightly resembling the hero of old.

And then Kenobi’s eyes widen and in the forced silence his slow rising up to his feet is deafening. So are the rasping breaths that wheeze out, in out, in, out, as if defying everything that has ever happened, continuing to hold onto that one last spark of blue light.

The air still burns.

Obi-Wan stares out at the world again, trying to pull himself back together.

It’s not working very well.

Nothing seems to work well after Anakin- no stop. _Stop stop stop you must **focus. Present moment.**_ Nothing can help _that_ now. _Just like I couldn’t help him then._

And then his eyes zero in to Cody and it’s as if his brain has stopped going towards cold insanity and he can breathe again. And then he breathes in and tries to centre himself, his base in the force feeling unsteady as a youngling’s.

But it’s okay for now, because his ballast is Cody.

The air still burns.

And the Jedi begins to feel better then, focusing on Cody, however inadvisable it most certainly is. Because right now the world is collapsing and nothing that he knows will ever be alright again. He has felt hundreds of his friends die in the last several hours but anytime he feels a new one it rips his heart anew, and he’s surprised that he hasn’t gone fully insane yet. It astounds him, in all honesty. He’d felt his mind slipping in a thousand different ways recently but he hadn’t been able to pull it together again, no matter how hard he tried. It had only made the situation worse, every part of old knowledge or Force that he reached for either vanishing entirely until it was as though he was not so much a person but a soup of human confusion, whose only goal was to deliver the children before it dissolved completely.

But here is Cody, and for some reason that very fact is pulling him back together. The clone is like warm sunlight on a chilly day, like the first charming snowflake on an icy planet that whispers through the air and distracts the focus away from bitterness and towards the echoes of joy that are always linger in the Force’s depths at such times.

This is what happens when a Jedi falls in love.

The General takes a deep breath, and turns his back to the clones, sprinting towards the ship and the newborns inside.

Everything else is still stagnant but there is a promise now that that is about to change and that promise terrifies Cody to his core.

Right. Shuttle.

Let’s hope the escape pod still works.

He had tried before of course, but maybe, just maybe there is a possibility of saving this enough to fit two new-borns before his strength runs out. After all his brain isn’t soup anymore.

 

Minutes pass and Cody fears with all his soul the release that he knows is drawing closer and closer.

Oh thank the Force.

He has worked a small miracle here, with the help of experience and suggestions from the Force. The escape pod can now ferry two younglings away, and out into orbit. They barely fit, but the air will last for days, and Bail should be picking them up soon, if the communications over the last few days hold true.

Obi-Wan drags it outside and launches the pod into the air, boosting it with the Force until he is certain that it will make it into orbit. Of course, to do so he must power his forced freeze of everything.

With the one second he has before the shots hit his back the beaten master reaches out to Cody, brushing his mind lightly. Confusion meets him at first before stunned realization

_Thankyou for giving me the time. Thankyou for helping me recentre._

_May the Force be with you._

Jedi have never been good at farewells.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And… done! I’ve never written anything like this before, I hope is passes muster. Happy Holidays!!!


End file.
